Opinion
A Blueprint for the U.S. – Africa Partnership
By Stephen Lande and Loulou Geboers
After more than 50 years of doing trade policy, my thoughts are now crystallized around the ideal partnership between the U.S. and Africa. And so, if someone woke me up in the middle of the night, demanding to know how equitable benefits should ensue between American and Africa, I would immediately echo the wisdom of my good friend Stephen Hayes from the Corporate Council on Africa: We must treat Africans like equal partners.
A Constellation | A Perfect Storm
Once this basic tenet of equality is established, we shall have what Witney Schneidman calls a constellation. I, on the other hand, prefer an even more illustrious term for this epoch: This is the perfect storm – the period within which conditions just ripe for ambitious programs exist not only to perfect the market access provisions of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) but to incorporate an enhanced AGOA and other initiatives of the Bush and Obama administrations into a coherent overall approach to commerce relations with Africa.
But let us get a few things straight: The ideal U.S. – Africa trade and investment partnership could be attained within a 20-year period. Like I mentioned earlier, this would be a true relationship between equals with trade liberalization either on a multilateral or preferential basis flowing in both directions.
Here, Africa would be open to U.S. foreign direct investment (FDI) and not mainly as a place to procure raw materials and agricultural produce. Ideally, the U.S. would be able to do business at all levels – including fully integrated supply chains and distribution networks. Once we evolve to this stage over a two-decade period, Africa would have, in the process, become part of the WTO group with whom the U.S. works to deepen trade liberalization and prevent backsliding in protectionist ways.
The Whole-of-Government Approach
President Clinton launched the current process of deepening U.S. – Africa relations with the original AGOA legislation, and President Bush gets credit for its implementation, first extension as well as those complementary initiatives, particularly the establishment of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC.) However the Obama Administration has not only built on both Clinton and Bush initiatives, but has developed its own tools to develop and deepen the economic partnership with Africa. With Congress and the African Diplomatic Corps, the Administration ensured that third country fabric was renewed in the heat of partisan paralysis in the legislative process. Initiatives worked within the Presidential Policy Directive on Africa that called for the whole-of-government-approach towards Africa.
There is a growing level of inter-agency cooperation and coordination in developing and implementing policy. There has, for instance, been a threefold increase in Ex-Im Bank lending to the region; record obligations and guarantees by the Overseas Private Insurance Corporation (OPIC) have also ensued, and there is a newfangled commitment to both maintain hubs and have the Commerce Department join USAID in the most comprehensive approach to basic agricultural production in Africa under the Feed the Future initiative. There’s also the United States Trade Representative’s decision to accelerate bilateral investment treaty (BIT) negotiations with Africa.
Interestingly, the major beneficiaries of the recent U.S. supported Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) in the Geneva-based WTO will be Africa. This is not to even mention three of the most recent initiatives: Trade Africa that favors economic integration, while Power Africa that strives to enhance energy and electricity to millions of African producers and consumers; and then, the Doing Business in Africa campaign to match U.S. and African businesses.
Throughout this progress, Congress has been a steady partner in not allowing the polarization from muddying the bipartisan waters that are the U.S. -Africa dynamic. On top of speeding renewal of the third country fabric provision, once a decision was made, they have clearly expressed to the agencies they oversee that they would like they would like to see more productive activities in Africa, and they have also agreed to increase the aforementioned lending authority of ExIm Bank, pressuring other agencies to do more. Congress is now actively considering a few complimentary measures to AGOA legislation (Increasing American Jobs Through Greater Exports to Africa) but with a focus on U.S. exports to Africa rather than the other way around.
